Wollongong's secret new dining experience

By
GREG ELLIS

The Fine Spun Catering team preparing dessert at the first Covert Cuisine.

Ever thought you would like to be taken out on a mystery dinner where all you know in advance is the theme and what to wear?

A new dining experience in Wollongong offers just that.

Covert Cuisine was an idea cooked up by self-confessed foodie Alison Perizi, who operates under the name of Agent Edesia.

Mrs Perizi was inspired by a secret dining event she attended in Newcastle last year titled Underground Epicureans.

That event started her creative juices flowing and within days she was planning secret dining experiences in the Illawarra.

The former manager of the Renewable Recyclers facility in Fairy Meadow left that job to have a baby several years ago but still works for the same company three days a week in Sydney.

Chef Greg Spain, of Fine Spun Catering, delivered the main dish with a Dracula theme.

But her passion for good food made from fresh regional produce combined with a drive to support local charities prompted her to spend the rest of the week as both a parent and an agent for secret food business.

The first Covert Cuisine dinner was an elaborate dining experience with a movie theme in June.

The aim of it and all future events is to showcase the quality and diversity of local chefs, regional provedores, venues and artists in the region to deliver something new, exciting and different to the local dining scene.

All guests knew about the first dinner was it was going to be a Silver Screen Supper in an iconic building.

They were told on the Covert Cuisine website that they should creatively dress as their favourite star of the silver screen. They then received an SMS and email on the day of the mystery dinner telling them where they were going.

It was in the old Regent Theatre, which had returned to its historic role as a movie theatre when Gateway Church let Edesia and her other secret agents wind back the clock to a bygone era, the Golden Years of Hollywood.